Heretofore, an ammeter has used as the instrument for displaying photographing information such as shutter speed or aperture opening in a camera. However, an ammeter is not generally strong enough to withstand mechanical vibration and is low in reliability. In addition, an ammeter occupies a relatively large space in the camera body. Furthermore, a tendency toward miniaturizing the size of a camera body is a prevalent design requirement among newer models.
In view of the foregoing, recently, solid light emission elements such as light emitting diodes (LEDs) have been employed as display means. These elements are rugged, and the circuitry employed can be made in IC form to satisfy design requirements. The use of LED's however, places serious power requirements of the camera battery since the power requirements are relatively high. This is especially true in the case of digital display using a series of LED segments to form a specific numerial value.
In general, in certain types of photography such as bulb or self-timer operation, the photographer rarely looks in the finder in the period of time from the start of photographing until the completion of the exposure. Therefore, during this interval illumination of the display elements may be stopped.